A Nix “I-have-no-idea-how-to-write-this” Review – The King by JR Ward (3 Stars) (NSFW)

J.R. Ward's # 1 New York Times bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood continues as a royal bloodline is compromised by a grave threat to the throne.

Long live the King...

After turning his back on the throne for centuries, Wrath, son of Wrath, finally assumed his father’s mantle--with the help of his beloved mate. But the crown sets heavily on his head. As the war with the Lessening Society rages on, and the threat from the Band of Bastards truly hits home, he is forced to make choices that put everything--and everyone--at risk.

Beth Randall thought she knew what she was getting into when she mated the last pure blooded vampire on the planet: An easy ride was not it. But when she decides she wants a child, she’s unprepared for Wrath’s response--or the distance it creates between them.

The question is, will true love win out... or tortured legacy take over?

FTC : I bought this book and, like everyone else, opened the pages with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. Damn, I hate it when I’m right …

So, this review is going to be the oddest review I’ve ever written for a book of The Kings size. Without spoiling it for fans, and people who have never ventured into this bat-shit crazy world, it is difficult to structure this review. It’s also difficult because there is so many Goddamn plot threads in the book there is no logical order to review it in. After thinking long and hard how to do it, I’m reviewing it via plot thread as I’ve seen others do. Yes ladies and gents, this book is so convoluted I can structure it exactly like this….

PLOT ONE : Wrath and Beth (Rating 4/5)

The reason I picked up this book is because I love these two. Their book started the series and drew me into this mad (and often maddening) world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. I love them and I actually enjoyed their thread in this. I say thread as their plot only took up around a quarter of the book. Beth is amazing in this book (as usual) and I enjoyed her strength. In this one, she wants a baby. Badly. Wrath does not and becomes a complete a-hole about it. Does Beth waver and cow down to his demands? No, she sticks to her guns even when she know that, eventually, it may mean the demise of their relationship. I think that she would have seen things differently if he had a logical reason for not wanting to have a child but, as logical as they probably were for him, they weren’t reason enough for her. I loved that she had enough strength to stand up for him and for her equal part in the relationship. I loved their struggles and I particularly enjoyed the way their problems were everyday ones, even set against the royal background. The resolution of their marital problems did feel rushed and wasn’t particularly satisfying; I felt, if they had more time in the book, this would have felt a bit more of a solid resolution.

PLOT TWO : Wrath’s struggles with accepting his title (5/5)

As twee as the resolution of this plot was, I kinda liked it. Basically people are still trying to usurp Wrath as King and are trying to use Beth’s half-blood status to do this. On a side note, in the “plotting scenes” from the Glymera I got completely fucking lost. I didn’t know who any of them were and, to be honest, I didn’t give a shit. I skimmed it to get the gist and took none of it in. Anyway, back to Wrath. This plot was about him struggling with the role and, eventually, realising that, to be king, he had to rule and be visible. No hiding allowed. These scenes were really uplifting and fun. At times during this book Wrath was a complete a-hole but, once he accepted his lot in life and embraced it, he became the Wrath I have nostalgic fuzzy feelings about. Of course, this passage makes it all sound easy … it really isn’t.

PLOT THREE : Assail and Sola (2/5)

These two got around a quarter of book … I shit you not. Here’s the thing; I like both characters. Sola is a strong woman whom I admired and Assail was kinda fun, in a mysterious drug-dealer kinda way. So why 2/5? Because I couldn’t give a crap about their story. They were good characters but I have no idea what the point of their plot was to this story. As far as I could see, they could have been completely cut and it would have had no overall impact on the plot of the King. I ended up skimming most of it, only stopping to read the scenes with Grandma as she was awesome. Pointless.

PLOT FOUR : John’s “episodes” (5/5)

This got barely any pages but, man, I want to know where this is going. Every time he see’s Beth, he blacks out and I WANT TO KNOW WHY.

PLOT FIVE : The flashbacks to Wrath’s Parents (1/5)

When I see chapters written in italics in the BDB, I know I’m possibly going to hate them. This was definitely the case here and I ended up skipping them. I think they were there to contrast Wrath’s version of being a King with the one that his father had (Yeah, Wrath sucked as King at the start of this book). I think it was also there as some sort of tragic love story. I honestly didn’t care and ended up skipping nearly a fifth of the book.

PLOT SIX : The Shadows (4/5)

I kind of liked them in this story and they got a LOT of page time. I think this is because they are up next in the series (not sure how I feel about this). Finding out the back-story, and realising the full horror that awaits Trez when his arranged marriage kicks in, was quite heart-breaking and I feel theirs could be a very angsty book (yay!). Of course, there are complications as he is head over heels for Selena (stuff happens … ’tis good). There is also a complication as the Shadow-Queen has sent a warrior called s’Ex to bring him back. I’m going to give you a second to digest that…. the character is called s’Ex. What. The. Fuck. I honestly cannot foresee a time where I will take this man seriously as a threat. Oh and all the hookers want to be with him as he is a stallion in the sack … *head-desk*

See, I’m even resorting to GIF’s to show my hatred of that name. And I hate GIFs…

PLOT SEVEN : Layla and Xcor (and Throe by default) 1/5

I hate her. I hate him and the band of asshats. I hate this plot-line. I wish they would both sod off back to the other-side and stay there.

So there you have it, that’s my review. Can you find a reason in this completely random, disjointed post to read it? I have left some random rants out (Miley Cyrus references??? really???) and some random swoony scenes (Zsadist talking about fatherhood to Wrath just about melted my heart) but this post could have turned into a novel in itself. I just don’t know how much longer I can keep getting excited about this series ..

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I have this book but can’t seem to get started reading it. From everything I’ve read about it , the only parts I’m going to be interested in are Wrath and Beth and The Shadows. In previous books I’ve skipped the scenes with Layla, Xcor, and BoB. I find them annoying and just an un-necessary distraction the stories. I hate feeling this way about my favorite series!

I completely agree with your assessments of all with the exception of 3, 4 and 5. I love Assail and Sola, and while I agree that they are not connected, I’m glad she didn’t spin them off into another series (a big beef I had back a few books ago). As for John’s episodes… *headdesk* Ward keeps telling us that he’ll never figure out his dual past – so why the f*ck does she keep this up? It’s ridiculous. I was hoping it would all stop when he walked her down the aisle, but… *sigh* Finally, I did enjoy the flashbacks about Wrath’s family. I like how it paralleled Wrath’s struggles and it gave insight to his roots.